No More Mr. Nice Guy!

Allah is not Great: How Islam Poisons Everything

Time for another book report, and today I'm reviewing Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Infidel. I still intend to read and review Alister McGrath's The Dawkins Delusion as I promised last time, but someone has checked out my local public library's copy so I'll wait until it comes back. What, did you think I was going to buy it? [Update: here's the link]

Anyway, Infidel is a fascinating and at times harrowing book, but also an inspiring one. A girl grows up in poverty in Mogadishu, just one generation removed from a nomadic lifestyle that's thousands of years old. She's steeped in a violently misogynistic religion, and at age five she undergoes the astonishingly cruel, painful and barbaric custom that is female genital mutilation. The reason for this custom is pure ignorance: people believe that if a girl's clitoris is not cut out, it will keep growing larger and larger. A girl who has not been butchered this way is a kinterleey, unclean, evil, a prostitute, deserving of being beaten and bullied by everyone else including schoolteachers and other adults. Remember, we're talking about five-year-old girls.

As the girl grows older, she is continually lectured that she is nothing, worthless, inherently sinful and evil, by sole virtue of her gender. She is the property of her father and brother until the inevitable arranged marriage to a stranger, then she is her husband's property, to be beaten and raped at will. Her husband will be perfectly free to take another wife, even disappear without a word and abandon her with her children (as Ayaan's father did to her mother). But if a girl steps out of line by the slightest amount, in her words, dress, behavior, by any romantic interest in a non-Muslim or even a Muslim of the wrong clan, then she has shamed her male "owners", and they can avenge their "honor" only by brutally murdering her.

Thanks to her irresponsible and usually absent father, Ayaan has a chaotic childhood, being dragged around from Saudi Arabia to Ethiopia to Kenya, back to Somalia, and then back again to Kenya. The one bright spot is the school in Nairobi which opens her eyes to Western ideas of individual freedom. Even trashy Barbara Cartland bodice-rippers inspire her with the idea of women making their own choices in love and in life.

Then Ayaan is snapped back to reality with the news that marriage has been arranged for her, with a Somali man living in Canada. She dreads the prospect of her dreams being quashed, the pain of the "Night of Defloration" when her stranger husband will break open the scar tissue (left from the genital mutilation) with his penis and proudly display the bloody sheets, and the lifetime of servitude and debasement that lies ahead of her and that has already broken the spirit of her older female friends.

Ayaan is given a ticket to Canada via Germany. While in Germany, on the spur of the moment she takes a train to the Netherlands and applies for asylum as a refugee. Fearing that her would-be husband and his vengeful clan will be after her, she gives her name as Ayaan Hirsi Ali instead of Ayaan Hirsi Magan, using her grandfather's name instead of her father's. This is legal under Somali law, but has tragic consequences later.

Ayaan quickly makes a new life for herself in the Netherlands. She becomes fluent in Dutch, gets a degree in political science from the country's most prestigious university, and impresses everyone she meets with her hard work and quiet determination. She also works as a Somali translator for the Dutch welfare agencies, and every day encounters heartbreaking stories of women beaten, abused, and raped, and young girls butchered in rent-free refugee apartments. She becomes determined to stop the suffering of Muslim women in the Netherlands, which is being ignored because of political correctness and feeble-minded multiculturalism.

After just a few years in the country, Ayaan becomes not only a Dutch citizen but a Member of Parliament, and collaborates with filmmaker Theo van Gogh (great-grandnephew of Vincent) on a ten-minute film which, to Western eyes, sounds incredibly innocuous. It shows women praying to Allah, but breaking taboo by lifting their eyes from the ground and asking why they must submit without question.

The result: pandemonium. Holland's explosively-growing Muslim community reacts with outrage, and Van Gogh is brutally murdered. Ayaan must go into hiding, cut off from her friends, surrounded by government-supplied bodyguards at all times and never able to stay in the same place more than a few nights in a row. At length the Dutch government, perhaps tired of the expense of protecting her, brings up the issue of her changing her name when applying for asylum, and threatens to revoke her Dutch citizenship. This would make her ineligible to serve in Parliament, and thus ineligible for bodyguards. Fortunately, Ayaan gets an opportunity to move to the US where she is now working at a conservative think-tank.

It's not surprising that conservative Christians would exploit this story for their own purposes. As Ayaan points out, Muslims are coming to Europe in huge numbers and simply not integrating; they have their own (tax-supported) Quranic schools, they watch only Muslim TV via satellite dishes or cassettes sold door-to-door in Muslim neighborhoods, they generally cocoon themselves from the host country and deride it as full of filthy unbeliever pigs, even while taking advantage of every generosity extended to them. (A Somali woman tells Ayaan how to milk the system: "If you call a Dutchman a racist, he'll give you anything you want.") Lack of integration (the Quran forbids friendship with infidels) leads to higher crime, poverty, abuse of women and children, lower educational achievements, and failure to learn the values of the host country: freedom, openness, respect for one's neighbors, and the rule of law instead of barbaric "honor killings."

But can Christians look in a mirror and claim to be without sin? Here in the US we are seeing the rise of an increasingly powerful parallel Christianist society, with children home-schooled to prevent exposure to the teaching of evolution or sex education, then sent to Pat Robertson University or its ilk, from which they emerge with no real qualifications except as Bush administration flunkies. Something very similar is going on with ultra-orthodox Hassidic communities in Israel and parts of the US. Read this story of Jewish extremists in Jerusalem who regard government-run city buses as their personal domain, and savagely attack even Jewish women who invade "their" holy space. Ask yourself whether only Islam is the problem, or whether it's a sickness of fundamentalist and fanatical religion generally.

But a more important and more positive message to learn from this book is that even someone as disadvantaged as Ayaan can break free from the prison of backwardness and superstition she was born into. Even though she knew almost nothing of Western culture while living in Africa, it still exerted a powerful pull on her and many of her friends.

Think of how much good we in the West could achieve if we could reach out to the Muslim world instead of spending billions a day to destroy Iraq and create whole new generations of Osama bin Ladens and centuries of hatred and revenge. The US has spent a pittance on Arabic-language broadcasting in the Middle East, and true to form has fucked up by appointing cronies who don't speak Arabic and have no broadcast experience, and have inadvertently allowed pro-al-Qaeda material to be aired. The BBC also spends a pittance, relatively speaking, but has a highly-respected World Service which is a lifeline of free speech and factual information for people in despotic regimes all over the world.

Islam, like any religion, means different things to different people. But for far too many people, it degrades women and inculcates mindless fanaticism and violence. It's not that Christianity is any better than Islam; read this fine collection of quotes from the American Taliban and it's obvious that if given free rein, Christofascists in the US would cause just as much oppression and suffering. Life in Western society offers more freedom and more opportunities only because Christianity has been reined in and stripped of its once absolute power. The Renaissance and the Enlightenment came at a huge cost in holy wars and inquisitions. The Muslim world has yet to experience similar movements, even as the US backslides into religious insanity and triumphalism.

Anyway, as a fellow infidel who has had to make his own journey from a suffocatingly religious upbringing to the light of reason (though mine was vastly easier), I highly recommend this book.

Friedman says we need to stop being stupid. Right-wingers give the rebuttal.

Tom Friedman finally says something sensible about 9/11, after years of "Suck on this, Iraq" and cheerleading for Junior's destruction of that country. Better late than never, I suppose, but who's this "we", paleface?

Of course, the attack poodles of the lunatic extreme right never let something sensible go unanswered, and quickly mount one of their trademark pile-ons in which they demonstrate that they are not only stupid but jaw-droppingly dishonest. Stop the ACLU, Sister Toldjah and the other usual suspects are claiming, in their opening sentences, that Friedman said we should stop caring about 9/11, we should pretend it's still 9/10, and generally that Friedman said the opposite of what he really said. Good grief, do these morons think nobody is going to click on the link and check what Friedman actually wrote? Well, maybe their regular mouth-breathing readers won't.

Sigh.... what a shower of wankers. Anyway, HT to Maha for the links.

Hank Fox: fair and balanced

Hank Fox, slightly channeling The Rude Pundit, sums up perfectly what I've been ranting about for months:

If politics was a porn video, Republicans would be the leather-clad, whip-wielding Tops. Democrats would be the squealing, submissive Bottoms. But they'd be in the same bed.

Where's Rudy?

Too busy shmoozing with Bo Derek and Dennis Miller to face Tavis Smiley's minority debate.

"M-Fer, I want more champagne!"

Christerf#@k to the White House

"No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." --United States Constitution, Article VI

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." --United States Constitution, Amendment 1

"The Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion." --Treaty of Tripoli, Article 11

"I admire the [sic] Islam. There's a lot of good principles in it. But I just have to say in all candor that since this nation was founded primarily on Christian principles, personally, I prefer someone who I know who has a solid grounding in my faith... I just feel that that's an important part of our qualifications to lead." --John McCain

Can the human race and the chimp peacefully coexist?

Rarely is the question asked: "Is our children learning?" Finally, the answer is in: childrens do learn, especially when the White House website is there to edit their grammatial blunders.

In other news, Alberto Gonzales' heir apparent, Michael Mukasey, uses US marshalls to empty his trash and perform other menial chores for him. What are they complaining about? Slavery is good, says Michael Medved.

Aaaaaaargh... shoot me now.

Republicans - the only true Americans

Enjoy.

Next stop, Hell

George Bush Junior was hell-bent on war in early 2003, even while claiming for public consumption that he hadn't yet made up his mind about war.

Today, as the smoldering ruins of his pet war against Iraq continue to drag the US into financial and moral bankruptcy, Junior is now hell-bent on war against Iran. Today he scored a major victory with the Senate rubber-stamping a stealth war authorization cheer-led by Jon Kyl and Joe Liebershit and approved overwhelmingly by the rethugs and over half of the dems. Once again we are about to be dragged into war based on lies and greed.

Is it too late to stop this stark raving insanity?

Jesus... why won't Democrats EVER put up a fight?

Before last year's midterm elections, rethugs had a monopoly on political power in the US. Then the voters elected Democrats to a majority in both houses of Congress, with a clear mandate to pull out of Iraq.

Today... rethugs still have a monopoly on political power. They call all the shots, set the agenda, get exactly what they want, and give nothing in return. Nothing has changed.

Why? Because dems are craven, quisling, spineless, cowardly lumps of jelly. Instead of putting up even a token fight on behalf of the people who elected them, they fall over each other in their crazed stampede to capitulate to the rethugs and meekly submit to all their demands. Like packing the Federal Elections Commission with known election-riggers and racist disenfranchisers. Thus ensuring, needless to say, that the oversight that allowed the last election results to happen will be "corrected" and the rethug grip on power will be total and absolute in perpetuity.

I used to think the only thing the cowardly craven dems in Congress cared about was their own careers, and that the only way to force them to honor their mandate was to make them fear they wouldn't get re-elected if they kept caving and surrendering to the rethugs. Alas, now it's clear that they don't even care about re-election; they just piss their pants every time a rethug says "boo" and will do anything, gladly sell out their principles and their constituents, just too stop the big nasty rethugs from frightening them. Sometimes they really make me puke and want to bang my head against a wall.

Oh well, you know the old saying: if voting could change the system, it wouldn't be legal.

Deluded about Dawkins (Part I)

I finally got around to finishing The God Delusion recently. I had been wondering what all the fuss is about - what wicked things Richard Dawkins had written that caused religious fundamentalists and "moderates" alike to shriek with outrage and frantically wave the smelling salts under each other's noses. I'm still wondering. I thought the book was overall extremely well written, makes a number of cogent points about the harm religion does, and says many things which religionists may not wish to hear but which are incontrovertible.

I know Richard Dawkins doesn't need me to defend him, but I got so sick of the ignorant and uninformed tirades being written against him from all quarters that I wrote down the following thoughts, just to vent. It's clear to me that many of Dawkins' critics haven't even read the book. Or perhaps they read it like too many people read the bible: with their eyes closed. That is to say, seeing only what they wish to see. Again and again I get the strong impression that what really angers the critics is Dawkins' temerity in treating religion objectively without the elaborate ritual kowtows that are expected from everyone - a good illustration of his basic point that religion has a unique, and unearned, place of privilege in western society which has for far too long stifled criticism of it, however deserved and needed.

One common argument levelled against Dawkins is that he is unfamiliar with the finer points of theology and therefore not qualified to criticize (the speaker's flavor of) religion. This is specious on so many grounds, it's hard to know where to start.

For one thing, Dawkins' critics feel perfectly free to dismiss out of hand the existence of Thor, Zeus, Quetzalcoatl etc. without troubling to acquaint themselves with the minutiae of Viking, Ancient Greek and Aztec beliefs.

Secondly, theology is not the neutral, objective study of either religion in general or a particular religion. Apart from the fact that the concept of theology as generally understood is culturally specific to the Abrahamic religions, theology is primarily about proselytizing - it as seen as an effort to yoke reason in the service of spreading the "good news."

To be a theologian, you start by accepting the "revealed truths" of whichever theological tradition you are associated with, and argue from them to the statement you are trying to prove. And since you started by declaring the central dogmas of your faith off limits to questions and scrutiny, it's not surprising that there's nowhere to go from there, except to indulge in jejune intellectual exercises that are basically rewarmed versions of the question of how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. See Platinga's argument for the existence of a "maximally great being" in the comments thread of this post - obviously it is St. Anselm's weary old argument dressed up in pseudo-mathematical language, but the emperor is just as nude as ever. Clearly, it is more than a little disingenuous to insist that Dawkins buy into the arguments he is opposing, before he can be deemed worthy to oppose them!

Theology is a house of cards built on quicksand. It may be the most elaborate and Byzantine, even beautiful, house of cards ever constructed. But it's still built on quicksand, and I don't need to be a structural engineer to know that it will collapse at the first breath of the fresh air of reason and objective scrutiny.

I'm not saying Dawkins' book is without fault. There are a couple of places where he strikes a jarring note. For example, the label "faith-head" comes out of nowhere once or twice, and I could see how many readers would take offense, believing Dawkins was talking about them. But if I understand correctly, to Dawkins a "faith-head" is someone who believes blindly, and willfully ignores anything that might shake his belief. Such a person is probably a lost cause anyway, and is certainly not going to read "The God Delusion" - his megachurch preacher has probably already told him it's a satanic book, and he'll scream forever in infinite agony in the Lake of Fire if he so much as goes into a non-Christian bookstore that might stock a copy.

Which brings us to another charge - that Dawkins is lumping all believers in with the mouth-foaming fundies. I don't think he is, though he could perhaps have made the point clearer. There are many places in the book where he speaks warmly about religious people like Richard Harries or Zaki Badawi. What they have in common is that they do not put their religious beliefs ahead of empathy for their fellow human beings. I think this is a very important point that goes to the heart of what is wrong with religion. When you follow religion in a blind and rigid way, and place dogma before your fellow creatures, then religion inevitably causes harm, suffering and bloodshed.

Speaking for myself, I have zero respect for the "faith-heads" as described above. I have a little more respect for people who, while still operating in a religious framework, at least try to think for themselves, and smooth off the sharp edges of the belief they were brought up in. I grew up in a very strict Irish Catholic family, and I have family members who are still very rigid and dogmatic about it. Others, however, as they grew older, inevitably encountered situations where holding to the letter of the law would lead to an unjust result, and they decided to fudge things a little in order to do the right thing. They rationalized this with cop-outs about God's mysterious ways, but that's fine; it's actions that count, not talk. Nobody should be considered virtuous just because of what they believe; how they treat their fellow creatures is the only thing that counts. Believing six impossible things before breakfast doesn't make you a moral person, just a gullible one.

The people I have most respect for are those with the intellectual courage to question the framework itself, and transcend it. I make a distinction between religion and spirituality. To me, spirituality is about asking questions, trying to find meaning in our existence. Religion comes along and says, we have all the answers, you must blindly accept them and not ask any questions. At best, religion is a form of spirituality that became rigid and ossified at an infantile stage. But some individuals who are brought up in a religious tradition manage to transcend it and make the transition to spirituality. They may come up with different answers than I would, but I respect them for at least asking the questions and thinking for themselves. Perhaps that's the best thing about religion; it can be a gateway to more genuine spirituality.

But on the other hand, moderate religionists all too often provide cover for the extremists who preach violence, hatred and bloodshed. The mantle (or cheap tuxedo, if you will) of piety gives despicable goblins like Pat Robertson a seat at the table where public policy is written and our tax money is disbursed. When push comes to shove, it seems the moderates will line up with the extremists rather than the atheists who may be much closer to them politically and ethically, but who fail to observe the proper formalities of religious obeisance.

I guess it's the old syndrome of "I against my brother; my brother and I against my cousin; my cousin and I against the infidel." After 9/11 and the war against Iraq, no thinking person can deny the danger that fanatical religion poses to civilization, whether it's Osama bin Laden's or George Bush Junior's religion that is invoked while launching the bombs and missiles. But when the moderates should be issuing clarion calls against religious extremism, they are boo-hooing that nasty mean Richard Dawkins is a "fundamentalist" (how many people has he killed? How many bombs has he planted?) and that he is failing to distinguish between lowest common denominator religiosity and the advanced ethereal plane the moderates occupy, so they might as well make it a self-fulfilling prophesy and stand with the extremists against the "new atheists."

While I'm at it, even if Richard Dawkins is trying to "destroy religion" as his critics claim, so what? Dawkins is arguing with his knowledge, his words and his intelligence. If religion can't stand up to that, it's a piss-poor religion to start with. But the religious fanatics are "arguing" with car bombs, suicide vests and machetes, with cruise missiles and depleted uranium. They score points in their "argument" by racking up the body count. There's no question which side the real fundamentalists are on.

On the whole, I greatly enjoyed the book and I am bemused by the wildly disproportionate backlash against it. There are admittedly a couple of places where Dawkins comes across as needlessly confrontational (as when he writes about "Neville Chamberlain evolutionists"), but Dawkins is Dawkins and he wrote the book he had to write, so I am not going to second-guess him.

This post is planned to be part of a series. In the next post, to be fair to Dawkins' critics and make sure I understand their arguments, I plan on reading Alister McGrath's The Dawkins Delusion. I will report back here when finished. Also on my reading list (in fact I've already started it), Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Infidel.

Happy reading!

[Update: added links to later posts]

Hispanic attack

I sat through the first part of Ken Burns' latest magnum opus, The War, tonight. It was interesting, but it was two and a half hours long and yet only the first of eight parts - I can't see myself investing the major chunk of time necessary to seeing it through to the end.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this series is that even before the first episode aired, it had succumbed to the modern curse of politically correct, outraged professional victim groups - in this case, some Hispanics who are accusing Burns of cultural genocide because they felt he didn't focus enough on Hispanics. Oh for christ's sake! To his discredit, Burns allowed himself to be bullied into compromising his vision and integrity, and added some material to placate the shouting bullies, though they are still calling for a boycott.

This is ridiculous! For one thing, Hispanics were 1.4% of the US population during World War Two, and mostly of Puerto Rican origin - this was before the current era of massive, uncontrolled illegal immigration from Mexico. I'm not saying Hispanics should be deliberately snubbed, but nor do I believe that every aggrieved minority group should benefit from a quota system in every TV program and movie that anyone else produces. Clearly, Burns' intent was to show how the US as a nation got through the war, and focus on what united the people, not divided them.

It reminds me of a big brouhaha in the Bay Area a few years ago. Near the town of Gilroy there was a settlement known as Salsipuede, founded by Hispanic agricultural workers. Today the only remains of the settlement is a school named after the village. Well, a few years ago, Hispanics in the area - descendants of those who settled it - started complaining that the name Salsipuede is racist because it means "get out if you can." They claimed that the name was a racist message from gringos telling them to get out! They were ignorant of their own history and wanted to stay that way.

Anyway, I know illegal immigrants in this country often have a tough time and are exploited and abused. When the fringe Mecha types start shouting and ranting about trivial stuff like this, they only make themselves look stupid.

Pay no attention to the man behind the bushes!

Still in Atrios mode, here are a few links to scare the bejazes out of you:

• Cheney mulled Israeli strike on Iran
• The US approves an Israeli attack on Syria
• Secret US air force team to perfect plan for Iran strike
• George Bush Junior is covertly supporting an extreme fundamentalist group - the kind that thinks it has a duty to bring on Armageddon - and has already helped it to more or less take over the US military.

Have a nice day!

Yet more rethug hypocrisy

Sorry to go all Atrios on you but I'm working today, and just have time to post a link. Long before the 'thugs erupted in a synchronized fit of the shrieking vapors over the MoveOn add, Rush Limpballs was calling Chuck Hagel "Betrayus".

Holey Joe

In the current US real estate slump, many people are desperate to sell their homes and willing to do almost anything. So it's not surprising that snake oil salesmen are popping out of the woodwork touting their sure-fire house-selling methods based on superstition and quackery.

My local paper, affectionately known as the Arizona Repulsive, today covers two such methods: Feng Shui and burying a St. Joseph statue upside down in a hole in your front yard. Now, I can accept the possibility that Feng Shui practitioners are unconsciously tapping into good practices of design and layout, and since they can't explain how they do it, they invoke invisible dragons biting their tails and what not - the result may be sound even if the basis is questionable. But St. Joseph statues? This is magical thinking at its most primitive.

The act of burying a statue of a saint for a home sale can easily be viewed as superstition.

But for Stephen Binz, another home seller who struggled to get an offer, the ritual became more of a prayer. Binz is the author of St. Joseph, My Real Estate Agent. Binz spends the first chapter of the book explaining how the process helped him, and focuses the book on how the saint can be an inspiration to those in the transitional process of moving.

"If a person believes that by saying certain words or performing a certain action something is going to occur, that's superstition," he said. "But appealing to a saint is an act of devotion."

Nice bit of special pleading there!

Proving that there's one born again every minute, and two to take him, the article continues:

According to Phil Cates, owner of the online retailer StJosephStatue.com, sales of figurine kits have risen about 100 percent every year since 2004.

For $9.95, the statue comes with a burial bag and an instructional booklet, all packaged in a cotton tote bag with a logo of St. Joseph, Cates said. (The company's phone number, by the way, is 1-888-BURY-JOE.)

I also found this site. I understand it makes a crucial difference whether the statue faces the house or the street. But what do you do if you're trying to sell a condo with no yard? Bankrate.com has the answer: stick Joe in a flowerpot.

Sheesh! If St. Joseph is America's realtor, than St. Jude, the patron saint of lost causes, should be its official historian.

You are the weakest link. Goodbye!

I sometimes watch "The Weakest Link" on BBC America, because in a strange way it's comforting to realize that Brits can be just as dumb as Merkins. (Why is there a BBC America, when PBS already exists?) But anyway, the other night there was a classic moment:

Q: "Which biblical character, who died at the age of nine hundred and sixty nine, was the grandfather of Noah?"

A: "God."

More rethug hypocrisy

Once again we see that hypocrisy is the defining characteristic of the Monkeynuts-worshipping extreme right. Lucianne Goldberg Junior posted a rant against Wesley Clark that was far more vicious (and totally unsubstantiated) than the MoveOn ad. Is anyone surprised?

Dictatorship for Dummies: a Ten-Step Program

If you don't have time to read Naomi Wolf's book The End Of America, you must read this summary. Wolf argues that there are ten steps every fascist dictator goes through in systematically turning an open and democratic society into a dictatorship. George Bush Junior and his neonazi-con and christofascist puppetmasters have already taken nine of them.

Dems: represent us or betray us?

The typical Democratic circular firing squad is still in full force, cravenly capitulating to the extreme-right noise machine and its artificial, synchronized outrage and screeching over the MoveOn ad. I am getting so sick of this shit!

There are two things I want everyone to do. First, go to the MoveOn site and tell those craven quisling dems who are scurrying to do the rethugs' bidding and shut you up, that you will not be silenced. Then, view this column and vote it 5 stars to keep it on the front page of Yahoo news, as some small token of balance against the "liberal media's" wall of noise about those evil Satanic MoveOn types.

Never forget, we have nothing to apologize for. It's the lunatic extreme right that should be abjectly apologizing and begging forgiveness for destroying this country!

Cowardly quisling Dems enabling rethug obstructionism

Here's what's really sick about the constant rethug obstructionism and sabotage that I've blogged about over the last few days: it wouldn't be possible without the active connivance of the cowardly, craven Dems. All it takes is one Democratic senator to stand up and stop the whole sickening charade. One senator to stand up and say, "I object", and force the rethug obstructionists to either allow a vote or keep the debate open.

Sadly, not one single Democrat in the senate has anything remotely resembling a spine. Not Reid, not Webb, not any of them. Every single one cravenly capitulates at the first hint of rethug opposition. And so we keep spending billions every day in Iraq, squandering hundreds of lives whether US troops or Iraqis, and making the US less safe and more hated.

I honestly don't know who makes me puke more, the evil thugs or the cowardly quisling dems.

Bush's Black and Tans

Blackwater and other mercenary groups are one of the biggest problems in Iraq, and one of the main reasons Iraqis hate us (no, it isn't for our freedom). They are actually more numerous than regular US troops, they are paid six-figure salaries from our tax dollars, and operate totally outside the rule of law, murdering with impunity, thanks to laws imposed by former Lieutenant-Chimperor Paul Bremer. They've even posted videos on the internet showing themselves driving around Baghdad, firing on random civilians with machine guns, all to the beat of an Elvis soundtrack.

As always with the Junior regime, there is a cronyist aspect. Cofer Black, formerly a big mucky-muck in the CIA and the State Department, is the chairman of vice at Blackwater. He's also a senior advisor to Mitt Romney, though the "liberal media" is assiduously avoiding any mention of the connection.

I can understand why Iraqis would say, "If this is liberation, we want Saddam back."

Terrorist cells

Oh, shit...

The Bush administration is infested top to bottom with dominionists, including many who are members of "cell churches" and hide behind an affiliation with a more mainstream denomination. Junior himself constantly uses dog-whistle dominionist language. (I'll never look at Wesson oil the same way again.) Very, very scary stuff.

Rethugs filibuster the troops

Another despicable victory for Senate rethugs in their campaign of sabotage and obstructionism. This time their victims are US troops in Iraq who are being sent there over and over again, and kept for longer each time, with no chance to rest and recuperate between tours of duty. Why do rethugs hate the troops so much?

And why is the "liberal media" not calling them on their venal and loathsome behavior? Notice how the headline is "The Senate has blocked a bill that would have regulated the amount of time troops spend in combat." Not the rethugs, the Senate! If the positions were reversed, you would by now have been deafened by screaming headlines about troop-hating Dems.

God, those evil bastards make me sick.

Don't stop believing...

I know it looks like crap but I got tired of struggling with the aptly-named Gimp. Maybe some day I'll figure out how to use the blasted thing.

Rethugs filibuster Habeus Corpus

Someone has to call them on this shit.

Arizona Conservative Idiot of the Week: E.J. Perkins

MoveOn = al-Qaeda? Oh for Christ's sake! Get over it, right-wing idiots. The splurge has been a miserable failure, Junior is lying about it, and all your frenzied screeching can't cover up the facts.

The F-word

Isn't it funny how the word "filibuster" disappears from the political vocabulary when it's the rethugs who are doing it?

Today, Senate rethugs filibustered an effort to begin debate on giving voting rights to the District of Columbia. Their motivation is obvious, and this cowardly move to stifle debate is of a piece with their disenfranchising of African-American voters in many other parts of the country.

In the same way, the 'thugs have filibustered any attempt to set a timetable for Junior's disastrous pet war against Iraq, or limit the trillions of dollars being shovelled down that bottomless black hole (and into the coffers of Cheney the Dick's Halliburton). They've filibustered Democratic bills to raise the minimum wage, to improve port security, to allow stem cell research, anything that is intended to help ordinary people rather than pander to millionaires.

And the worst part is that both the Dems and the "liberal media" are helping and enabling them. The media never calls them on their sabotage and obstructionism. (Search for "filibuster" on Google News and notice that only progressive blogs come up.) And the Dems give the 'thugs a free ride, caving faster than a Utah coalmine and cravenly withdrawing their bills at the merest hint of any rethug opposition. The 'thugs never have to mount a real filibuster and are not the slightest bit inconvenienced.

Why won't the Dems stop being such cowardly, spineless wimps? The Constitution clearly states that 51 votes in the Senate is a majority. It's all very nice and sporting to aim for consensus, but surely it's abundantly clear by now that the 'thugs are vicious dogs in the manger; if they can't have absolute power, they won't let anyone else have any power. There is just no reasoning with them, no reaching out to them. They've already done too much damage to the country!

Taser Nation

Yesterday, a student was arrested and tased at a speech by John Kerry at the University of Florida. When you look at the rather disturbing video of the event, it's clear that the guy was being jerky and disruptive, but did he really need to be tased while he was lying on the floor, handcuffed, with six very large cops sitting on him?

Needless to say, the extreme right has fastened on Kerry's presence and reacted with its usual smug smirking stupidity. See a sample of responses here. The blissfully brainless Ace of Spades writes: "Boy, that security team sure was in a wicked hurry to lay hands on someone disrespecting a Democrat, weren't they?" The moronic Michelle Malkin (dictionary definition: "an untidy woman, slattern; a scarecrow, ragged puppet, or grotesque effigy") laments that tasers are not used on illegal aliens. Enough said.

Almost a year ago, a very similar and even more disturbing tasing incident took place at the UCLA library. In full view of hundreds of students, campus police repeatedly tased a student, Mostafa Tabatabainejad, as he lay on the floor, handcuffed. He posed absolutely no threat to the officers, they tased him simply because he didn't obey their screamed orders to stand up. Maybe previous shocks had deprived him of control of his legs? What's especially outrageous is that some witnesses asked the officers for their badges numbers and were told, "you'll get tased too." (Video)

The taser was supposed to be a humane way of defusing violent and dangerous situations without killing anyone. Instead it's being used more and more frequently with gratuitous sadism, merely because the police don't like what someone is saying, or he won't obey their orders fast enough, or they're just on a power trip and want a little fun.

It's all too easy to make partisan hay out of incidents like this, but I truly believe that the George Bush Junior administration has over the last six and a half years, by its constant drumbeat of crude blustering and fearmongering, greatly coarsened and brutalized our society in a way not seen in decades. When the example from the top is that prohibitions on torture are quaint and obsolete, that anyone's rights can be arbitrarily declared null and void, and that any act of official violence, however horrific, can be justified by some supposed threat to the entire country's very existence, can we really be surprised at this kind of callous heavy-handedness and brutality?

Rum, Sodomy, and the Bush

Oh fer cryin' out loud... Donald Rumsturd is back. Can't he take a hint?

The infinitely odious and despicable Rummy recently popped up in an interview on - guess what - Fox Noise, where he revealed that he's too busy shopping his memoirs around (and hoping for a "large cash advance" despite "tepid interest" from publishers) to pay any attention to the colossal, unbelievably disastrous quagmire he's created in Iraq. Charming.

Even worse, he thinks Afghanistan was a big success. Good friggin' grief - what an utterly clueless, callous and contemptible son of a bitch.

The gobbledygook-spouting warmonger, whose ruminations about unknown unknowables frequently left journalists scratching their heads, is also wringing his hands about the current nasty and vitriolic state of partisan politics. Well, Heavens to Betsy! Henny Penny, the sky is falling! "It seems that the default position for opponents of anyone is to call them liars and betrayers," he opines. What, anyone? No, he only means MoveOn - certainly not Karl Rove or the other rethug turd-shovelers.

For the millionth time: all right-wingers are bullies, and all bullies are cowards. They can dish it out but they can't take it.

Rummy whines about the tendency to "criminalize public service", i.e. the deplorable proclivities of some un-American traitors to point out that our Constitutional system of government has been hijacked by certain corrupt criminals who have perverted public service into an unprecedented gravy train of private financial profit, by waging unprovoked wars, screwing the troops and embezzling billions from the public coffers. Rumsfeld plans to set up a foundation to "encourage reasoned and civil debate" and encourage students to get into politics. Presumably, Ann Coulter, Jack Abramoff and Tom Delay will be among the instructors.

I could also mention Rumsturd's legacy of corporatist corruption involving aspartame and bird flu, and his criminal disregard for public health and safety, to say nothing of his utter contempt for the troops he sent into the meat grinder... but I'd be here all night.

One interesting note is that Rummy says he doesn't miss Junior. Maybe he'd rather shake hands with Saddam Hussein again? If hell exists, he'll have his chance.

Mukasey Shmukasey

Michael Mukasey, Junior's would-be replacement for "Torquemada" Gonzales, is above reproach according to bipartisan consensus. So it's a little disturbing to learn that he was accused of corruption in a lawsuit (PDF). I don't speak enough legalese to have any idea of the merits of the case - for all I know, it could be some lone nut filing nuisance lawsuits. Or not.

Anyway, it's likely that the spineless Dems will rubber-stamp Mukasey's confirmation, in sheer fawning gratitude for the misadministration not foisting another infinitely-far-right, barking mad extremist on them. They never learn!

What Dems should really do is insist that one of the wrongly fired US attorneys - someone like Paul Charlton, who genuinely does have a record that is above reproach, and whose shabby treatment by the regime was unforgivable - should be nominated to replace Fredo. Poetic justice and all that! And I'm sure The Party Of Honor And Integrity couldn't have any reason to object to him as a candidate. Could they? If they don't want him, how about David Iglesias? Or Carol Lam? Surely among all those fired, there is one that the rethugs wouldn't filibuster, and have nothing to fear from?

The Junior junta is weak, and we need to use their own tactics against them - kick them when they're down. Mukasey is unacceptable! Don't ask me why, he just is! Only one of the fired attorneys can take Speedy Gonzales' place! Justice demands it!

Go forth and spread the meme: Justice for the Gonzalez 8!

Take this cup and drink from it

Mahablog commenter c u n d gulag has written an amazing poem.

Suck it, Jeezoids

What's sauce for Kathy Griffin ought to be sauce for Tom "F.U." Friedman.

Low expectations

I have long wondered how anyone with the IQ of a sea cucumber could blather about "Victory" in Iraq. How the hell can the United States win another country's civil war?

Anyway, I don't know whether it was because of some dim realization of this dilemma finally filtering through The Genocider's skull - probably not - but it seems "Victory" has been quietly retired in favor of "Success". Can we look forward to S-I Day - Success in Iraq Day?

In a speech which was widely panned (and amazingly had only one reference to 9/11), Junior blew a lot of smoke about the "success" that he claims to have already achieved, but the facts tell a different story - especially considering that for an Iraqi leader to associate with the Americans is the kiss of death.

I guess the Chimperor is so all-powerful and godlike, he can even make time go backwards! In the distant past, he proclaimed "Mission Accomplished" and announced that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended." Then for many years it was all about "staying the course" and "turning a corner" to achieve victory. And now - success is on the march! Yessirree Bob!

I anticipate that Diebold-appointed President Fred Thompson will give a major speech in 2010 announcing Peace with Honor, and his successor, President Jenna Bush, will address the nation in 2017, announcing Peace in Our Time. "I have in my hand a piece of paper... but I can't read it."

We have always been at war with Mesopotamia!

A Sister Coulter moment

The conservatards are still screeching in unison over the MoveOn ad, try frantically to shout down the real story which MoveOn has abundantly documented: the "splurge" has been an abysmal failure, and the Junior misadministration is lying and covering it up.

Yesterday's soundbite was about Joe McCarthy; today they've switched gears, although I doubt that it's because they recognized the irony of invoking a right-wing hatemongering buffoon. Anyway, today's hate figure is black and female: Sister Souljah. (They're also regurgitating the "all liberals think Bush is Hitler" talking point from three years ago.)

Now, Sister Souljah said: "Why not have a week and kill white people?" and was deservedly rebuked by Bill Clinton. Do I need to point out that MoveOn is not advocating murder, genocide or ethnic cleansing?

And why is it that the "liberal media" crucifies every Dem politician every time anyone, anywhere, says anything that gives fodder to the vast extreme-right noise machine? Every Dem in Congress is dragged in front of a microphone and beaten about the head until he or she grovels on the ground and whimpers an abject apology.

Meanwhile, right-wing pundits spew an infinite torrent of the vilest hate and filth every day, and no rethug is ever taken to task over it. It wouldn't be Monday (or Tuesday or Wednesday or...) if Ann Cunter wasn't calling for John Edwards, Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens or someone else to be assassinated. And to my knowledge, no rethug has apologized for the sickening Swift Boat ads, or the ad morphing Max Cleland's face into Osama bin Laden's, or even been asked to apologize for them.

If the Dems had a single testicle between them, they would be saying at every opportunity: "MoveOn is not the story. The story is that the surge has been a ghastly failure, and the administration is lying about it, just like they lied to drag us into this horrific quagmire in the first place. The Republicans have infinitely more to apologize about than us. Let them apologize to Valerie Plame, John Kerry, Max Cleland, and most of all the families of the thousands of US troops and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis whose lives they've destroyed, and let them make amends by getting our troops out of Iraq and calling off plans to destroy Iran, then get back to us about MoveOn."

Isn't it time the lunatic extreme right had a "Sister Coulter" moment?

Sister Coulter, now the time has come
To tell the world that you are evil scum...

MoveOn everyone, nothing to see here

Max Cleland was a war hero who left three limbs behind in Vietnam. In 2002, his rethug opponent Saxby Chambliss ran a sleazy attack ad morphing his face into Osama bin Laden's.

John Kerry was another Vietnam war hero who won multiple decorations for courage under fire, but was slimed as a traitor and coward - on behalf of a man who was too cowardly even to hide from the war in a champagne unit of the National Guard, and deserted just before he had to take a drug test.

So you will forgive me if I don't join in the chorus of artificial outrage and synchronized shrieking over the famous MoveOn ad. It reminds me of nothing so much as the schoolyard bully who finally gets hit back and runs, snivelling and wailing, for the teacher.

Everyone is focusing on the single word "Betrayus" and ignoring the overwhelming documentation that the "splurge" has been a colossal failure that has wasted thousands of lives and billions of dollars to make Iraq, and the US, less safe. Petraeus's White House-written report is a tissue of lies and cherry-picked data (sectarian murders are only counted if you're shot in the back of the head, not the front!) from beginning to end, just like the lies that Junior used to drag us into this ghastly quagmire in the first place.

The extreme right has gleefully seized on one word to - irony of ironies - invoke the ghost of their spiritual father, Joe McCarthy, and mendaciously accuse the Dems of calling Petraeus a traitor. Of course, they would love to make MoveOn the story, to distract attention from the horrific failures of the ongoing cluster-cheney that is George Bush Junior's pet war against Iraq. Pay no attention to the chimp behind the curtain! Sadly, even some progressives - along with the entire corporatist media, of course - are falling for this flimsy trick.

Every day I grow more stunned at the incredible, infinite hypocrisy of the extreme right. All right-wingers are bullies, and all bullies are cowards - they can dish it out but they can't take it.

My religion, your cult

Linda Valdez writes:

Cult leader Warren Jeffs' trial is getting national attention. That might be a good thing if those doing the stories got things straight. Jeffs is not "religious leader." He is a cult deceptionist. His group does not practice a "religion" in which polygamy plays a part. It is a cult in which young girls are coerced into sexual unions ordained by Jeffs. Fair trial? Sure. Let's have fair terminology, too. Polygamy does not qualify as a legitimate practice in a nation that values equality.

What's the difference between a cult and a mainstream religion, and who gets to decide which is which? It's simple: a religion is a cult with political power.

We have a long-standing taboo in Western society against criticizing religion. Religion is too holy, too sacred to be subject to any analysis with the brains God supposedly gave us; it must be treated with fawning obsequiousness. We have an unspoken agreement with the other "mainstream" religions; we don't criticize them and they don't criticize us.

Of course, being basically tribalistic, authoritarian and irrational in nature, religions will inevitably lead to people doing nasty things which no decent person can ignore. But then we have an out: we fire up the bagpipes and wail that the offending religion is a cult, not a real religion. (Of course we conveniently forget that "mainstream" Mormonism sanctioned "celestial marriage" of old men and young girls for much of its history, and that the bible is replete with polygamy, incest, rape and sexual slavery - all commanded by God.)

And then of course when someone like Richard Dawkins comes along, and demands that we take off the blinkers and look at religion objectively, without its cocooning force field of knee-jerk piety and unearned respect, we positively shriek with apoplexy against "new atheists", "fundamentalist atheists", "crusading atheists" and what not.

Face it, folks; religion is the problem. Religion makes people switch off their brains and accept orders unquestioningly from self-appointed holy men - a situation that begs for abuse. The taboo that protects religion from healthy criticism leads directly to Warren Jeffs' taliban rule, and all sorts of other horrors.

We need more Richard Dawkins and less Warren Jeffs in this world!

Impeachment Watch

The grass-roots movement to impeach the corrupt criminal traitors Bush and Cheney grows stronger every day, in every part of the country - even in the red states.

The regime is fighting back clumsily and heavy-handedly. In Washington DC, riot police on horseback charged into a peaceful assembly and arrested bystanders - allegedly because they were putting up posters using adhesive that did not comply with city regulations. Do I detect a whiff of desperation?

And lest anyone think that impeachment is silly and pointless, two former CIA analysts remind us why it is essential, and should not only be on the table but should be the only thing on the table! The traitors will keep on destroying Iraq, destroying Iran, destroying the US unless we stop them now!

One small price for inhumanity

There's an old joke that started going around after OJ Simpson was sprung by an act of race-based jury nullification:

Q: What's OJ Simpson's email address?
A: Slash-slash-backslash-slash-slash-slash-backslash-backslash-escape.

I was reminded of it when Junior had an attack of foot-in-mouth disease and blathered mindlessly about Iraq being a comma in history.

Over a thousand dead US troops later, John Boner pulls a similar gaffe: all those lives squandered in the meat grinder is a small price.

A small price, a comma.... why quibble? All that counts is the hundreds of billions of tax dollars being bulldozed into the coffers of Cheney the Dick's Halliburton!

Keith Olberman is right: this war is being incompetently waged and recklessly prolonged by people who face no adverse consequences no matter how badly they cheney up. Junior is already smirkingly looking forward to the lecture fees he will amass after he leaves office and dumps his irreparable mess in his successor's lap.

No more commas! We need to impeach the despicable little chimp, period!

People are ignorant

This is very scary and depressing.

The survey measuring attitudes toward freedom of religion, speech and the press found that 55% believe erroneously that the Constitution establishes a Christian nation. In the survey, which is conducted annually by the First Amendment Center, a non-partisan educational group, three out of four people who identify themselves as evangelical or Republican believe that the Constitution establishes a Christian nation. About half of Democrats and independents do.

The US educational system continues its slide into total uselessness. Meanwhile, people are constantly bombarded with falsehoods, in their churches every Sunday, and every time they turn on the TV or read a newspaper (if they even do).

Is our children learning? In a word, no.

W-men on the Surge of a Nervous Breakdown

Boy, it's really tough to come up with an original snarky headline. "Surge Overkill", "Surgin' General's Warning", "Like a Surgin'" etc. are already taken. Only the really obscure references are left.

I just about used up my blog-fu with the headline, so for now I will just post some links to other people's stuff:

Las Vegas Gleaner: Petraeus unveils 'don't ask, don't know' Iraq strategy

Video: They're selling a bunch of crap - again.

Be seeing you!

What should have happened after 9/11

I don't wish in any way to diminish the horror or evil of the 9/11 attacks. However, what has happened since then has been even more tragic.

Here's what should have happened instead.

We should have realized that the US was reaping what it sowed. After decades of overthrowing popularly elected governments and installing "our sons of bitches" to brutalize their countries and bleed them dry for the benefit of US megacorporations, some type of blowback was inevitable.

We should have realized that when you create, arm and train monsters, there is no guarantee that they won't eventually point their guns at you.

We should have realized that our insatiable greed for oil was endangering our security, destroying the planet and making us bedfellows with medieval despots.

If President-Elect Gore had been allowed to take the office he had rightfully won, Osama bin Laden would have been captured long ago, 9/11 might even have been prevented (because Gore had no financial ties to the Bin Laden family that would cause his administration to stymie the FBI and CIA investigations) and we would be six years closer to kicking our oil addiction in favor of clean, renewable energy.

Today the US would not have lost almost 4,000 troops and trillions of dollars attacking a country that had nothing to do with 9/11.

Today the US would still have a Constitution that meant something, and the United States would not be an international leper, the most hated nation on earth.

Today I mourn not only the 3,000 lives lost on 9/11, but a country that has lost its soul. Most of all I mourn for what might have been.

The Craig crime family

This is a doozy! Larry Craig's children have been going on nationwide TV to defend their slimy "restroom enthusiast" father. However, one of them is a wife beater and statutory rapist, and the other is a stalker with a warrant out for her arrest.

(HT to Moscow at RedStateRebels.net)

Insane in the dubya-brane

The blogosphere is all over this report of brain differences between liberals and conservatives. Basically, a scientific study suggests that liberals have brains that are better able to adapt to changing circumstances while conservatives are more rigid in their thinking. Well, duh!

However, one aspect of the study leads me to question the methodology.

Participants were college students whose politics ranged from "very liberal" to "very conservative." They were instructed to tap a keyboard when an M appeared on a computer monitor and to refrain from tapping when they saw a W.

M appeared four times more frequently than W, conditioning participants to press a key in knee-jerk fashion whenever they saw a letter.

Each participant was wired to an electroencephalograph that recorded activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, the part of the brain that detects conflicts between a habitual tendency (pressing a key) and a more appropriate response (not pressing the key). Liberals had more brain activity and made fewer mistakes than conservatives when they saw a W, researchers said. Liberals and conservatives were equally accurate in recognizing M.

Was "W" really the best choice of letter? Common sense tells us that conservatives worship "W" and can't stop themselves from reacting in knee-jerk fashion when they see the royal symbol. Liberals, on the other hand, have a strong aversion to "W" after the last six years of nightmare, and can't avoid recoiling in horror.

Seriously though, this result fits with other studies on the differences between liberal and conservative brains. See for example here and here.

Anyway, it's nice to have scientific confirmation that liberals have more neurons firing!

James Kennedy, R.I.P. (Roast in Perdition)

Most of what I wrote on the death of Jerry Falwell applies equally well to James Kennedy:

Falwell was a typical religious right conservative; he toadied to the wealthy and powerful, pandered to the ignorant and reactionary, and preached hatred against the powerless and disenfranchised. He thought that morality begins and ends with (other people's) sex...

But Kennedy wasn't just another hater-and-liar-for-Jeezus; he was also a key figure in the Christian Dominionist movement's takeover of the Pentagon with the agenda to abolish the Constitution and wage Armageddon to trigger the rapture. Very scary stuff!

The more I learn about Kennedy, the more glad I am that he's dead. Unfortunately, it's likely that some even more rigid, hateful, power-hungry and theocratic, and just as cozy with the Junior regime, will take his place.

James Kennedy recants on deathbed, embraces atheism

Miami (EAP) -- D. James Kennedy, the megachurch pastor whose fiercely conservative worldview helped fuel the rise of the religious extreme right in American politics, renounced Christianity and embraced atheism on his deathbed, according to Lady Reason, a close personal friend who was present at Kennedy's death.

"All my life I was wrong," Kennedy reportedly told Lady Reason. "I persecuted people and spread ignorance and backwardness in the name of a god that didn't exist. And I tricked poor people who were living hand to mouth into giving me money they couldn't afford, to build a gaudy megachurch and live a lavish lifestyle."

"I know there's no afterlife, but I feel so bad for the people I hurt. I want to apologize to them," Kennedy continued before sinking into a coma from which he never recovered.

It was reported that Kennedy was reading Richard Dawkins' book The God Delusion shortly before he died.

Kennedy's followers have claimed that Lady Reason's account is false and that Kennedy never even met her.

(Note to any baffled Christians who might be reading this post: this is a parody of the "deathbed conversion" urban legends constantly being invented by Christians about Charles Darwin, Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov etc. and of the insulting "No atheists in foxholes" meme.)

Osama bush Laden

George Bush Junior responds to the latest Osama bin Laden video:

"I found it interested that on the tape Iraq was mentioned, which is a reminder that Iraq is part of the war against extremists. If al-Qaida bothers to mention Iraq, it's because they want to achieve their objectives in Iraq, which is to drive us out," he said.

You unbelievably, infinitely stupid cretin - you were the one who brought al-Qaeda into Iraq in the first place! Sheesh - how can anyone be that stupid and still remember to breathe?

Let's recap a little recent history:

January 2001: the Junior regime enters the White House, and is warned by Richard Clarke and others that Osama bin Laden is the greatest threat to the security of United States. They blow him off.

August 2001: Junior is handed an urgent Presidential Daily Briefing entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack inside the United States." He refuses to read it and goes on vacation.

September 11, 2001: When the predicted attacks happen, Junior is sitting on his ass in a Florida kindergarten, holding "My Pet Goat" upside down. He remains sitting there in a stupor while aides try to get him to understand that the US is under attack. When the class finally finishes reading its book, Junior hangs around to chat and joke with reporters for another half hour, before boarding a plane and flying in circles all day.

September 17, 2001: "I want justice, and there's an old poster out West that says, 'Wanted: Dead or Alive.' "

March 20, 2002: "I am deeply concerned about Iraq. And so should the American people be concerned about Iraq. And so should people who love freedom be concerned about Iraq... And, again, I don't know where [Osama] is. I -- I'll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him."

August 2002: Suicide bombers kill nine Israelis. The Vacationer-in-Chief responds: "Now watch this drive."

December 2002: Junior lets Bin Laden escape from Tora Bora when he is on the verge of being captured, because the administration pulled troops out to get them ready to invade Iraq.

October 2004: Bin Laden returns the favor by putting out a video designed to get Junior elected (I refuse to say "re-elected"). An al-Qaeda statement from earlier that year explains Osama's motivation: "It is not possible to find a leader more foolish than you, who deals with matters by force rather than with wisdom. Kerry will kill our nation while it sleeps because he and the Democrats have the cunning to embellish blasphemy and present it to the Arabs and Muslim nation as civilization. Because of this we desire you to be elected."

Wow, Osama bin Laden has really led a charmed life since Junior entered the White House. I wonder why? It couldn't be anything to do with close financial ties between the Bush and Bin Laden families, could it?

And now Osama bin Laden comes out with yet another video, just as General Petraeus is about to issue his report which isn't a report and isn't his, and just as the useful idiots need another dose of inchoate fear and dread to keep them in a state of infantile helplessness and ready to sacrifice all their rights, property and firstborn to Big Brother in return for keeping them safe and warm.

Heckuva job, Osama!

Bad, naughty, nasty boys

And this is just from the start of 2007 to the present.

"Watcha gonna do when they come for you..."

Oh gawd...

The Buffoon-in-Chief continues to show the world what a low-class ignorant hick he is. He brags to senior Australian politicians about "kicking ass in Iraq", confuses their country with Austria, and generally carries on being the brainless drooling dolt he's always been.

Forget the banality of evil, this is the stupidity of evil!

Right-wing said Fred

It baffles me that Fred Thompson has any credibility whatsoever in the presidential race. Even this column which touts his scant virtues ("That big, craggy face, the lanky six foot six frame, the deep, comforting southern drawl, like a warming draught of Tennessee bourbon by the fire on a foggy winter night, all are somehow just pleasingly presidential") admits that he has had an undistinguished career of small achievements.

In fact the article carefully skates over Thompson's principal achievements: acting as a mole for Nixon during Watergate (though Nixon still thought Thompson was "dumb as hell"), paying slush funds to his son, keeping "box upon box" of illegal Cuban cigars in his Senate office, bloviating against women's rights while lobbying for a pro-choice group (and then lying about it), and so on.

I was disgusted when Jay Leno announced at the beginning of his show last night that Fred Thompson was his guest, and there was a massive cheer from the studio audience. Woo-hoo, yet another rich white old pasty-faced, peace-hating, anti-civil-rights, flip-flopping hypocrite! Just what this country needs! Good grief, can't they tell that the character he plays in "Law and Order" is just that, a character?

I feel a song coming on:

Thompson, meet Fred Thompson,
From the modern stone age GOP,
From the Deep South swampland,
He's a page right out of history.
When you're with Fred Thompson,
you'll have a yabba dabba doo time,
A dabba doo time,
You'll have a gay old time!

From the people who brought you Kent State...

Free Speech dead in Ohio? The city of Kent hit a man with criminal charges for displaying an "Impeach Bush" sign. Fortunately the case was dismissed.

Meanwhile, the city council of Madison, Wisconsin avoided being arrested by narrowly defeating a resolution calling for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney.

The way I see it, those cowardly craven quislings in Congress have wimped out and totally reneged on their constitutional duty to hold Junior accountable. We the People must step in an fill the void! The impeachment movement is growing stronger every day, in every part of the country. It will become an unstoppable force that even the most gutless Bush-enablers cannot ignore. Let's just hope we're not too late!

Giuliani's pet goat

Rudy Giuliani overruled his advisors and located his emergency command center in the WTC for corrupt cronyist reasons - and hundreds of emergency workers died as a direct result. It was a colossal blunder, and yet he continues to lie about it, blaming his director of emergency management for the decision.

And, just like Junior standing on a pile of corpses with a bullhorn, Giuliani has milked 9/11 for all he's worth, projecting a totally false image of the macho take-charge guy, striding around the streets of New York (because he had no emergency center to go to). What a cowardly lying putz.

Impeach now or we're all doomed

George Bush Junior's pet war against the people of Iraq has been a total catastrophuck unprecedented in world history - but it's been a bottomless pot of gold for Cheney the Dick and other neonazi-con cronies. Read this account (and watch the accompanying video) for a taste of how the cronies have ripped off untold billions of dollars from us, the taxpayers, and embarked on the most blatant swindling, corruption and waste imaginable. But what do you expect when the war itself was based on lies - when Junior knew damn well he was lying through his teeth when he blathered on about WMD's?

No wonder the Junior regime is frothing at the mouth to repeat the whole c